Matthew BuzziAsus ROG G752VT-DH72The Asus ROG G752VT-DH72 is a big, powerful gaming laptop that's priced well relative to its features and performance. It's not the fastest system in the category, but it's affordable and lets you plays demanding games smoothly.

Big and bulky. Small keyboard for such a large laptop. Anti-glare coating on display mutes images.

Bottom Line

The Asus ROG G752VT-DH72 is a big, powerful gaming laptop that's priced well relative to its features and performance. It's not the fastest system in the category, but it's affordable and lets you plays demanding games smoothly.

The Asus ROG G752VT-DH72 (starts at $1,649; $1,799 as tested) is a powerful midrange gaming laptop featuring an Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of memory, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX970M graphics card. It can run visually demanding games at playable frame rates, even at higher settings. The physical design is meant to enhance your gaming experience, with extras like a backlit, anti-ghosting keyboard and a dust-resistant cooling system. The 1080p display isn't bad, though a bit muted from its anti-glare coating. There's also a 128GB solid-state boot drive, along with a 1TB hard drive for more storage. That said, the MSI GT72 Dominator Pro G-1438 offers superior performance, more ports, and a Blu-ray player. It remains our Editors' Choice for midrange gaming laptops, but the Asus ROG G752VT-DH72 delivers solid performance at a relatively affordable price.

Design and Features The G752VT-DH72 is large and bulky. At 1.5 by 16.4 by 12.7 inches (HWD) and 8.8 pounds, it takes up a lot of desk space and isn't the most travel-friendly system, though it isn't heavy as you might expect. The metal lid resembles the hood of a muscle car, and the big, copper hinge and bold vents on the rear complete the powerful, industrial look. The design might not be everyone's cup of tea, but if you're looking for a flashy statement, this laptop delivers. The dimensions are similar to that of other 17-inch gaming laptops, like the MSI G-1438 and the Asus ROG G751JY-DH72X, though the Aorus X7 Pro is slimmer and much lighter at 0.9 by 17 by 12 inches and 6.75 pounds.

The physical design includes gaming-related enhancements as well. The large vents on the back are part of a dust-release, thermal-fan cooling system, which aims to keep the laptop cooler while playing demanding games. The dual-fan system pushes dust into a dedicated internal corridor, keeping it away from the components, while cooling modules for the CPU and the GPU direct the hot air out the rear vents.

The touchpad on the ROG G752VT-DH72 is roomy and responsive, though the keyboard seems small as a result, and it's located rather far up the laptop from where your hands rest. The keys themselves feel good for typing. The keyboard also has backlighting and anti-ghosting, with 30-key rollover, a feature often found on expensive USB gaming keyboards, which prevents input logjams during fast-paced gameplay. There are also five dedicated macro keys on the top left, to which you can designate customized commands.

The matte, anti-glare coating on the 17.3-inch screen cuts down on reflections, but seems to mute the picture somewhat. The colors are still vibrant, and the images are sharp. The display features a full-HD, 1,920-by-1,080 resolution with In-Plane Switching (IPS) technology. Other 17-inch systems like the MSI G-1438 and the Asus G751JY-DH72X share the same resolution. The jump up to 3K and 4K resolutions in this price range are reserved for smaller 15.6-inch systems like the MSI GS60 Ghost Pro 3K (2,880 by 1,620) and the Asus ROG G501J-DS71 (3,860 by 2,160). Of course, such high resolutions are a compromise on gaming systems, as these displays are much more demanding, and performance is limited by mobile graphics cards, so you'll have to decide whether size, resolution, or performance are most important to you and choose the best mix. The system comes with Nvidia's G-Sync technology, which reduces screen-tearing artifacts and noticeably improves the smoothness of gameplay.

Connectivity options are plenty and varied. On the right side of the laptop, there are two USB 3.0 ports, a USB-C port with Thunderbolt 3, an HDMI port, a miniDisplayPort, an Ethernet jack, the power jack, and mic-in, headphone-out, and line-out jacks. On the left are an SD card reader and two more USB 3.0 ports. The system also features Bluetooth 4.0 and dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi for wireless connectivity, as well as a DVD drive. Asus includes a one-year warranty with the laptop.

Performance The system is powered by a 2.6GHz Intel Core i7-6700HQ processor. There's 16GB of memory on board, which can be upgraded all the way to 64GB. The discrete graphics card is a 3GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 970M, a pretty powerful mobile GPU, though slightly less so than the MSI G-1438's Nvidia GTX 980M card.

The G752VT-DH72 performed well across the board. It scored 3,571 points on the PCMark 8 Work Conventional productivity test, which falls behind the MSI G-1438 (3,726 points), but ahead of the Alienware 15 (3,206 points) and the Asus G501J-DS71 (2,812 points).

Multimedia test results were also strong. The ROG G752VT-DH72 completed the Handbrake video-encoding test in 1 minute 6 seconds and the Photoshop test in 3:24, and it scored 680 points on Cinebench. The MSI GT72 performed slightly better, while the Alienware 15 and the Asus ROG G501J-DS71 lagged behind. The main purpose of this system is obviously gaming, but it's perfectly capable of completing some media and photo editing projects.

Given that G-Sync technology has an impact on gaming performance, we ran our gaming tests on the laptop with the setting on and off. Running G-Sync makes games look better and run smoother, but it's more strenuous on the hardware. As a result, the scores are generally lower while it's enabled, but it's worth it as long as performance doesn't drop below playable levels. The G752VT-DH72's comparison numbers below are using the results with G-Sync on since it's the default setting.

On the 3DMark Cloud Gate and Fire Strike Extreme tests, the G752VT-DH72 scored 12,639 points and 3,360 points, respectively. The MSI G-1438 was just ahead on Cloud Gate (12,825 points), but had a bigger lead on Fire Strike Extreme (4,269 points). The Alienware 15 was behind on both tests, scoring 12,382 points on Cloud Gate and 3,128 points on Fire Strike Extreme, while the Asus G501J-DS71 scored higher on Cloud Gate (14,619 points) and lower on Fire Strike Extreme (1,948 points).

The ROG-G752VT-DH72's similar performance to the MSI G-1438 on the 3D graphics tests is noteworthy, since the latter costs $400 more, but for that jump in price, the MSI G-1438 is far and away the better performer on Fire Strike Extreme. When we turned G-Sync off, the ROG G752VT-DH72 scored 20,551 points on Cloud Gate and 3,393 points on Fire Strike Extreme, which is better, but still behind the MSI's score of 4,269 points on Fire Strike Extreme.

The Heaven and Valley 3D gaming tests, which lean more on the graphics card, also returned strong results for the ROG G752VT-DH72. With G-Sync on, it scored 72 frames per second (fps) on both tests at Medium-quality settings, and 39fps and 45fps on Heaven and Valley, respectively, at Ultra-quality settings. The MSI G-1438 fared better, scoring 73fps on Heaven and 72fps on Valley at Medium-quality settings, and 52fps and 57fps at Ultra-quality settings. The Alienware 15 was better at Medium quality (112fps on Heaven; 84fps on Valley), but almost identical at the higher settings. The Asus ROG G501J-DS71 performed similarly at Medium quality, but dropped down to unplayable levels at Ultra quality, no doubt due to its 4K display. When we turned G-Sync off, the ROG G752VT-DH72 scored 121fps on Heaven and 118fps on Valley at Medium-quality settings, and 40fps and 46 fps on Ultra-quality settings.

The ROG G752VT-DH72's strong performance was evident when I did my own anecdotal testing. I ran The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt at Medium-quality settings with no problems; even when I turned some of the game settings to high, gameplay was still smooth. Flipping all the settings to Ultra, however, with all of the extras, like Nvidia's HairWorks, turned on, proved to be a bit too strenuous. Less demanding multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) and massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) will run on maxiumum settings, while you'll have to dial down some options in high-end games similar to The Witcher, such as other open-world role-playing games (RPGs) and shooters.

As expected for a large gaming laptop, the ROG G752VT-DH72's battery life is nothing to write home about. It lasted just 2 hours 51 minutes on our rundown test. The demanding hardware in gaming laptops generally drains the battery quickly, but that's still at the lower end of the range. The MSI G-1438 lasted 3:25, the Alienware 15 finished in 5:29, and the Asus ROG G501J-DS71 posted a significantly longer 5:44. The massive, expensive MSI GT80 Titan SLI lasted just 2:30, and the 15-inch Acer Aspire V 15 Nitro (VN7-591G-76JG), despite its smaller size, only ran for 2:59.

Conclusion The Asus ROG G752VT-DH72 is a solid, well-priced gaming laptop that achieves exactly what it should. It's not best in class, performing better than slightly less-expensive systems and a bit below pricier laptops, but it can play demanding games smoothly, has a full HD display, and is quick at performing multimedia tasks. There's a fast boot drive and plenty of extra storage, as well as room to upgrade memory up to more than you'll likely need. The physical design is both flashy and functional, providing a better gaming experience in terms of the keyboard and system's cooling. The G752VT-DH72 provides a high-quality gaming experience affordably, but for $400 more in an inherently expensive category, the MSI GT72 Dominator Pro G-1438 is more powerful, with more port options and a Blu-ray drive, and it remains our Editors' Choice for midrange gaming laptops.

Asus ROG G752VT-DH72

Bottom Line: The Asus ROG G752VT-DH72 is a big, powerful gaming laptop that's priced well relative to its features and performance. It's not the fastest system in the category, but it's affordable and lets you plays demanding games smoothly.

About the Author

Matthew Buzzi is a Hardware Analyst at PCMag, reviewing laptops and desktops across a variety of categories. Given his passion for video games, he reviews a significant portion of PCMag's gaming systems, as well as the occasional game. He also spends plenty of time on Twitter (find him @MJBuzzi), with which he has a complicated relationship. When n... See Full Bio

Asus ROG G752VT-DH72

Asus ROG G752VT-DH72

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